Rachel Ray Show Sued by Overweight Teen for 'Emotional Distress'

Sometimes a little push leads to big results, but in the case of overweight teen Christina Pafliarolo, she claims the push given to her by the Rachael Ray Show and her assigned personal trainer Eric Viskovicz went over the top, causing her humiliation and minor physical injury.

Christina was 18 years old when she appeared on the Rachael Ray Show back in April of 2011 at 260 pounds. At the conclusion of the show about overweight teens, the famous host set Christina up with a personal trainer who would help her lose 70 pounds before her prom. Two years later, Christina is back, papers in hand, ready to sue the show, network (CBS), and trainer for "negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress."

Christina claims that the trainer made her run, hike in the mountains, and screamed at her "in a manner that caused Plaintiff to feel anxious, demeaned. and threatened." She also cites a particular instance when she was struggling on the StairMaster and the trainer kept turning up the intensity, causing her to fall off at one point, and claiming to have caused minor injuries to her legs.

Of course, none of us can say whether the training Christina was put through did go too far, as we weren't there. We’ve had a few personal trainers — some admittedly better than others — but most of them really pushed us to go longer and faster and harder, momentarily getting angry at us. It’s what they do. It’s how they get the best results out of us. But who's to say when motivation crosses the line to cruelty?

A rep for the show told Us Weekly, "We haven't received this purported lawsuit but if it does materialize we will defend ourselves against it vigorously and fully expect to prevail."